Aberrant 2.0 Character Generation
Note that power costs in NP have been decreased and Attribute/Ability purchasing with NP is rendered much less efficient to encourage less people with 5s in every attribute at chargen. It does make characters more powerful but I don't think that's an inherent issue. Means more playing the character you want versus playing half of the character you want.
Virtue and Vice
Characters no longer use the singular Nature rules, but rather have a Virtue and a Vice. Characters regain WP when acting in accordance to their virtue or indulging their vice, and must spend WP to act against their vice. Characters may have different Virtues and Vices-James Bond's Virtue might be Bravo but his Vice is almost certainly Hedonist, for example.
A character regains 2 WP when acting in accordance with their Virtue and 1 WP when they indulge their Vice. If a character has an opportunity to indulge their vice yet does not do so, they must spend 1 WP. A character may only regain WP from Virtue or Vice once per scene, and only needs to spend 1 WP to act against their Vice for a scene.
Natures
- Architect
- (Virtue): Regain WP when your character takes a concrete step towards realizing his greater goal.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist getting angry at someone who points out flaws in your plan, or following someone else's great plan. Regain WP if ignoring such criticism or following someone else's agenda would benefit you in the long run.
- Bravo
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you defeat a seemingly equal or superior foe or force him to back down.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist taking by force something you desire and have asked for "politely". Regain WP if you do so and it has significant negative long-term consequences.
- Caregiver
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you recieve tangible proof that you have helped another.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist giving aid to anyone who seems like they need it. Regain WP if giving such aid ends up causing you more trouble than it's worth.
- Charmer
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you clearly provide comfort and good cheer to another.
- (Vice): Spend WP to tell someone something they don't want to hear, regain WP if you don't tell them something they don't want to hear and not doing so has potential negative consequences to you.
- Cynic
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you have a backup plan when things go sour, because of your cynicism.
- (Vice): Spend WP to take advantage of a lucky break (rather than dismissing it due to clearly being a trap/a worse choice/etc). Regain WP if doing so puts you into a worse situation later.
- Expert
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you make a particularly impressive showing with an ability or teach your chosen skill to someone.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist showing your expertise off in a valid situation. Regain WP if doing so is taking an unreasonable risk.
- Fanatic
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you advance your chosen cause.
- (Vice): Spend WP to avoid making any sacrifice to the cause that is demanded. Regain WP if accepting this could possibly lead to grievous harm.
- Follower
- (Virtue): Regain WP when your carrying out your assigned duty is a significant factor in the group's success.
- (Vice): Spend WP to take charge or disagree with orders. Regain WP if the orders are blatantly bad or inefficient and you follow them anyways.
- Hedonist
- (Virtue): Gain WP when you have a truly good time (and bring others for the ride)
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist indulging in your chosen pleasure. Regain WP if indulging in such is obviously a bad idea.
- Hotshot
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you survive a dangerous situation you deliberately entered.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist indulging in an obvious foolhardy venture. Regain WP for taking the "hard way" when doing so has no benefits and great danger.
- Jester
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you lighten a mood or ease a tense situation.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist shooting your mouth off in inappropriate circumstances. Regain WP if you do so and it ends up greatly inconveniencing you (insulting a world leader on national TV, etc.)
- Leader
- (Virtue): Gain WP when one of your plans succeeds.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist taking charge when you are not in charge. Regain WP if doing so is a terrible idea.
- Paragon
- (Virtue): Gain WP when you accomplish a task by sticking to your enlightened ideals.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist your self-righteousness and accept a compromise. Regain WP if compromise would be a far better idea than self-righteous one-true-way moralizing.
- Perfectionist
- (Virtue): Gain WP when your painstaking perfectionism covers even an unforseen complication.
- (Vice): Spend WP to trust a hastily-put-together plan or jury-rigged system. Regain WP when you end up going without because of this insistence on a perfect plan (or mechanism) or none at all.
- Survivor
- (Virtue): Regain WP when you survive a dangerous situation via your own cunning and preserverance.
- (Vice): Spend WP to resist taking any action which would prolong your own survival or increase your chances, no matter what it is. Regain WP if you take an action that alienates or hurts friends and close allies for personal survival.
- Traditionalist
- (Virtue): Regain WP when adherence to tried-and-true methods prove effective.
- (Vice): Spend WP or disregard intuition, non-traditional deduction, or the bleeding edge. Regain WP if your refusal to use bleeding-edge equipment or superscience hobbles a plan.
Altered Costs
Human (Phase 1)
- Abilities: 30 ability dots + 3 free specialties
- Quantum: Humans have a base Quantum of 0.
Otherwise all costs and points are equal to the ones in the core rulebook.
Nova (45 NP base)
- Quantum: +1 Quantum for free, costs 5NP for every additional Quantum point (max starting Quantum is 5)
- Quantum Pool: 1 NP buys +4 to Quantum pool.
- Attributes/Abilities: 1 NP: 2 Attribute/6 Ability dots, one Ability dot can be traded for 3 specialty Dots
- Body Modification: 1 NP: 8 XP of Body Modifications
- Mega-Attribute: 2 NP: 1 dot of a Mega-Attribute
- Enhancement: 1 NP: 1 Enhancement
- Strength: 1 NP: 2 levels of strength for a power
- Extra: 2 NP: 1 Extra for a power
- Level 1 Power: 1 NP: 1 dot of a L1 power
- Level 2 Power: 2 NP: 1 dot of a L2 power
- Level 3 Power: 3 NP: 1 dot of a L3 power
Bonus Point Costs
- Attribute: 4
- Initiative: N/A (can no longer be bought)
Experience Costs
| TRAIT INCREASE | XP cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Attribute | Current x 4 | |
| Ability | Current x 2 | |
| Background | Current x 2 | |
| M-Attribute | Current x 5 | |
| Q-Power (L1) | Current x 2 | |
| Q-Power (L2) | Current x 5 | |
| Q-Power (L3) | Current x 7 | |
| Q-Power (L4) | Current x 9 | |
| Q-Power (L5) | Current x 11 | |
| Q-Power (L6) | Current x 13 | |
| Willpower | Current x 1 | |
| Quantum | Current x 8 | |
| Initiative | N/A (can no longer be bought) | |
| Merit | Rating x 2 XP | |
| Buying off Flaw | Rating x 3 XP | |
| Quantum Pool | 2 XP / point |
| NEW TRAIT | XP cost | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ability | 3 | ||
| Attribute | 6 | ||
| Specialty | 1 (3 max / ability) | ||
| Background | 2 | ||
| Enhancement | 5 | ||
| M-Attribute | 6 | ||
| Q-Power (L1) | 3 | ||
| Q-Power (L2) | 6 | ||
| Q-Power (L3) | 9 | ||
| Q-Power (L6) | 12 | ||
| Q-Power (L5) | 15 | ||
| Q-Power (L6) | 18 | ||
| Extra | 10 | ||
| Strength | 4 |
Chargen Variants
Taint Mutants
Taint Mutants are technically not Novas, as they do not possess the M-R node. Their ability to channel Quantum is much more haphazard and limited by their initial mutation. Rather than possessing a M-R node, they possess the cells scattered in metastasizing cancerous nodules all over their body, alien biology which will eventually consume them from the inside out with power they were not designed or intended to channel. On the flipside, anyone can be induced into becoming a Taint Mutant.
These mutants are built as humans the same way as a normal Nova, but have significant restrictions on their power. When designing them post "Eruption", Taint Mutants have 10 NP (versus a full-fledged 1st Gen Nova's 45), and they start with Permanent Taint 6. Taint Mutants gain the free point of Quantum and the free points in Endurance and Resistance that all Novas gain, but may not raise their Quantum under any circumstances. In addition to their increased starting Taint, Taint mutants cannot buy powers "Tainted" for reduced cost-every power or Mega-Attribute they purchase is already Tainted. These mutants also may not buy Node or Dormancy-they have a Quantum pool of 10 which they may not expand, and may only spend up to 4 Quantum/turn.
Obviously, because of their Quantum restriction, Taint Mutants may not possess any quantum powers with a quantum minimum higher than 1. Many Taint mutants also have their physical and mental attributes greatly rearranged as their reshaping is consciously done by a Nova. Most notably, most Taint mutants have an appearance score of 0, transferring all dots of appearance into dots of additional physical attributes, and mega-intellects are exceptionally rare among Taint mutants, as the Aberrants want expendable shock troopers, rather than thinkers and planners. Taint Mutants are at the mercy of the Aberrant who created them in terms of power set-after their mutation, a sub-Aberrant may never gain new powers, even if he does improve in already-granted ones.
In theory, it would be possible to create artificially-induced "pseudo-Novas" such as this in a significantly less horrific manner as a route to transforming humanity into a posthuman existence. However, an understanding of the theory behind creating pseudo-Novas (as opposed to Taint Mutants) would require one to piece together fragments of information left behind by the defunct United States of America, the EU, Project Triton, the Teragen, and the current Aberrants.
Taint Mutants are not rendered unplayable at Taint 10+, rather their mutations become ever more obvious and they become ever more unstable. Taint Mutants with Taint above 10 are doomed to a (relatively) fast and miserable death, and are often expended on suicidal attacks against human holdings. These mutants must make a reflexive (Stamina + Resistance) roll every month, the difficulty being (Permanent Taint - 8). Failure on this roll adds +1 to permanent Taint, and botching this roll causes the mutant to die in a horrific and agonizing fashion. Liquefaction is not the worst possible outcome here.
Trinity-era Aberrants
High-Taint Eximorphs are the majority of recent (2080+) eruptions rather than the low-taint ones. With both higher Taint and lower power, these Aberrants are still more than a match for the average Psion. Trinity-era Aberrants are built on 25 NP, but gain 1 point of permanent Taint for every power or Mega-Attribute they possess (no matter the dot rating, M-Str 5 gives 1 point of Taint, just like M-Str 1), and 1 additional point of permanent Taint per point of Quantum they possess.
These Aberrants never erupt without aberrations and start with 3 permanent Taint (including the 1 point from their automatic level of Quantum). These Aberrants are technically not limited in development, but may not start with a Quantum higher than 3 or any power rating higher than 3. They are also not rendered unplayable at Taint 10+, but simply gain more and more mutations.